Harry Potter plans!

Big news!

Hubster is doing his school internship, and unlike BYU, the school district has a fall break. So we're going to take advantage of it and go to Orlando to Universal (#8)! I was really worried about when we would be able to get this one done (and thought it might be one that didn't happen), so I'm glad it's working out. Here's hoping the weather holds up. Yikes.

I also decided I should re-read Harry Potter (#19) before then, as the main reason we're going is the Wizarding World. I'm halfway through book one!

I also started taking a Copperplate Calligraphy class, which I may substitute for #48. In January I'll have a year left on the list, so I'll finalize any changes then. I always feel kind of bad about changing things, but I also don't usually change too much, so I think it's okay. Time to thoughtfully evaluate!

Hope you're all having a good week!

Complete: 12. Go to the Utah State Fair

Another one down! We went to the Utah State Fair with our most excellent friends Jonathan and Emily. Emily has a totally great 101 List blog and going to the fair was on her list, too, so we combined our powers.

I grew up going to the San Diego County Fair in California (formerly the Del Mar Fair) and it is HUGE. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Utah State Fair, while not quite so huge, is a decent size with plenty to see and do. We especially enjoyed the sheep goats, and butter sculpture.

They had lots of informercial-type items for sale, plenty of deep fried food, and a lot of cool exhibits to look at.

The best part, though, was the ice cream tent. They have ice cream from Utah companies and it's all you can eat for $3. I got to try 5 new flavors of Red Button!

What a great trip. We're totally going to make the Fair priority again next year.

Complete: 13. Attend at least one full day of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

I've lived here for a long time and have always heard great things about the Storytelling Festival, but we've only gone to one of the evening events. It only whetted our appetite, so I put on my list that we would go to a full day, and we accomplished this Saturday.

We saw many lovely storytellers. My favorites were:

• Carmen Deedy - she immigrated from Cuba to Georgia as a child and talked about growing up there. She's hilarious. She switches effortless from Southern drawl to speedy Spanish.
• Shonaleigh - she ties present day stories to old Jewish tales with a lovely British accent. It's so interesting to see her connect the themes - we have always been telling the same stories.
• Amber Richardson - Amber is a local teller and she recently produced the production of Mother Wove the Morning that we saw. Such a wonderful surprise to see her there, and even better to hear her retelling of The Little Mermaid.
• Bil Lepp - this guy starts talking and you have no idea what will come out of his mouth next. He tells lies with such ease, resulting in completely believable tall tales.

We heard telling all day long, then went to the Laughin' Night event where every teller told one of their funniest tales. I was expecting gut-busting, rolling on the floor laughing, and it didn't quite live up to that, but it was still very enjoyable.

We are definitely thinking we should go again!

Weekly and Monthly Goals

They are off to a good start! It's silly that to accomplish goals you have to make more goals, but it really helps to break big things down into smaller chunks.

That's all I've got for you this week. Progress is progress!

Halfway!

Just 491 days left on my list, which means I'm a little over halfway done!

I've gotten 17 items done so far, which is great. I have a lot more in progress and I'd say about 10 are close to being completed.

I've made a lot of progress just in the last month with my 101 focus:
I finished 2 whole goals!
I read one volume of manga, watched 6 documentaries, read one Shakespeare play, watched 4 Ghibli movies, tried one new local restaurant, finished one LDS President biography, read a few books off my shelves, and listened to 5 episodes of This American Life.

To keep this pace up, I've got to keep working hard even if it's not 101 List focus month. I'm going to set new weekly and monthly goals and hopefully stick to them, as I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

Weekly:
Watch one documentary
Read or get rid of a book from the shelves
Do some Turking
Read an Uchtdorf talk

Monthly:
Read one volume of Yakitate
Watch Good Eats and make a recipe
Cook with Dog
Read 2 Shakespeare plays
Watch 2 Yakitate episodes
Read an LDS President biography
Cook a new recipe from a new country
Watch an international film
Try a new flavor of Red Button
Listen to 2 This American Lifes

There's a lot on the list that I can't chip away at, so I have to keep those in mind, too. I just gotta live every day like it's 101 List Focus Month!

Complete: 4. See 10+ new plays live

One more down!

I saw:

1. The Foreigner at the Covey Center 
2. Antony and Cleopatra by the Grassroots Shakespeare Company
3. See How They Run at the Hale Center Theater
4. Princess Academy the Musical by Kensington
5. The Merchant of Venice by the Grassroots Shakespeare Company
6. The Crucible at BYU
7. Mother Wove the Morning by Welcome Table Productions
8. The Barber of Seville at BYU
9. Seussical at the SCERA Shell
10. Noises Off at the Mercury Theater 

A big shout out to Grassroots for being lovely, as always. Merchant of Venice is seldom produced, as it does have strong anti-semitic messages - I felt like they handled it well. Portia is hands down my favorite Shakespeare lady now.

The Foreigner, See How They Run, and Noises Off were all hilarious. If you get the chance, you should see them. The Foreigner was my favorite of the three.

Mother Wove the Morning was amazing - I actually saw it twice, it was so good. It explores the feminine divine and it was so so cathartic to see it. It's also discouraging to realize how far we have to go, but reassuring to know others feel the same as me. I loved Lydia and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and every character in it. I'm on the hunt for Carol Lynn Pearon's performance of it on DVD.

I'm glad I've seen so many great plays!

Complete: 91. Beat Dinky Park

I've been playing Roller Coaster Tycoon on and off since like, 6th grade. I love managing everything. I love picking the sickest guest and naming them Barfo and following them around the park as they continue to ride rides that make them sicker. I love getting the balloon stall and watching them fill my park. I love making money. I would certainly never pick up guests and drop them in the water or leave them off paths (On a related note, you should check out this review of a RCT park as if it's a real park someone visited - I did have some deaths in my parks, but they were very rare).

For years, though, I'd get stuck at one particular scenario: Dinky Park. It's a minuscule park, and you need to get a $10,000 park value, which is just impossible with the land you have. There's a parcel of land you can buy to expand, but the parcels aren't connected. You can only buy the rights to extend your rides over the land between it. For the life of me, I couldn't make it work.

I've finally done it. It actually wasn't that hard, so I feel pretty silly, but nonetheless, I did it! To be fair, I was never really into constructing rides from scratch, and that's what it took to get it, so I'll cut myself some slack.

The original land is to the left, added land to the right in the lake, connected by a train line.

The only problem is people didn't know how to take the train over, so the original parcel got suuuuuper crowded. 

I ended up dropping people over there who were trying to get to the roller coaster, but I also ended up having to help people to the exit, as they couldn't get back over once they went on the train. People. 

Anyway, it doesn't matter if people actually rode the rides in the new parcel - just having them boosted the park value. 

So I did it! I now have 16 out of 101 goals completed!